Rachel Berry's Horrible Terrible No Good Very Bad
by LightningFuryStrike13
Summary: That's all she will say as they take her home from the hospital. She just had a really bad day. Puck won't accept that for an answer. Demanding answers pulls him deeper than he ever thought.


Disclaimer: I do not own Glee. I am in no way making money from this publication.

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One Week Later

Or

Rachel Berry's Horrible Terrible No Good Very Bad Day

Noah Puckerman prided himself on being a bully; on being the biggest, strongest and meanest guy around; on being a stud, and a sex shark with a fine eye for sexy ladies. Which was why when he walked by Crazy Short Skirt Berry's locker with her daily slushie he immediately noticed she wasn't there. He frowned and with a quick whip of his hand tossed it in the lurking Jacob's face instead before quickly moving on.

Berry never missed school. Hell last year she'd even shown up sick, wrapped in blanket and eating oatmeal in the hallway. He'd left her alone that week. Hey just cause he was a bully didn't mean he didn't have mercy..Okay maybe he didn't have much Exhibit A Wheelchair Kid. But Rachel was kind of his special victim. Like she was off limits to everyone else. Only he got to mess with her. So he left her alone that week. He figured she deserved a break. So she couldn't be sick even though it was raining cats and dogs and he knew she walked home a lot. She had this thing about a perfect attendance record. Hey chick talked constantly it was impossible to block it all out. He walked into English his first class and continued to ponder on Berry. He kicked back in the last roll, put his hands behind his head and to all appearances went to sleep. Normally he would have but now he pondered on the tiny missing brunette.

When had he seen her last? She was at school yesterday he knew that cause he'd slushied her like normal. He liked to mix it up and had slushied her right before 3rd period instead of his normal early morning one. He'd grabbed a grape one cause he'd noticed in 2nd period History that she'd looked kind of down and he figured he'd cut her a break and throw her favorite flavor. He hadn't seen her again until right before he'd dunked into the locker room for practice. She'd been in wet clothes standing before the school doors staring down at a broken pink umbrella while the rain outside poured down behind her. Finn had shoved him into the locker room just as she'd thrown the broken thing down and taken off running into the grey afternoon rain.

The bell rang and he swaggered to 2nd period History which since he normally shared this class with Berry he only threw a nod to the three lead Cheerios though Santana was giving him come hither eyes that usually meant he was getting some closet action. She'd been hinting at making it a regular thing but he was a bit distracted at the moment. He hated change and Berry not being at school was throwing off his rhythm. He scanned his mostly seated History class with a scowl before taking his seat at the pretty teacher's urging. He threw her a leer and slide into Berry's vacant front seat. Where the hell was she?

The next day his slushie went into the face of Fancy-pants the gay boy that sounded like a girl. Berry was still missing. He skipped 1st and headed to the office ask around. Her fathers had called Rachel in sick. She wouldn't be in for the rest of the week. He stalked out frustrated.

That night he questioned his mom about any teenage girls coming into the ER recently. She'd mentioned one had but that couldn't have been Rachel there was simply no way Miss Broadway would…

Next day there was still no Rachel. With a cold feeling sweeping up his back he dunked out after 2nd and headed for his truck. The rain had let up slightly which was good cause climbing in the rain truly sucked.

The sky began to darken almost to night again by the way he got to Berry's neighborhood. He parked in a nearby lot and slunk around her house searching for her window. There with the lacey curtains and the yellow star sun catcher that had to be her. He ran halfway up the fence to jump off and catch the lowest branch of the tree next to her house. From there he crept across the first floor roof to her window and peeked inside. He wasn't a creeper he just wanted to check on her then he'd be gone.

Rachel was inside. She was sitting on the side of her pretty white bedspread in a long white night gown that so did not look just like the one in those dreams he didn't have about her sometimes. Only a few things were off from those dreams; she wasn't smiling and there were thick white bandages halfway to her elbows.

He doesn't remember leaping through the window. He doesn't remember crawling to her. He doesn't remember burying his head in her lap. He doesn't remember his broken sobs as he asked for forgiveness over and over. He remembers her small soft hands slowly stroking through his short hair. He remembers the rough edge of the bandage scraping his forehead and ears. He remembers her sweet voice reassuring him that it was okay; that it wasn't his fault.

"It isn't? How? Why not? I slushie you every day! How is this not my fault?" He hated his voice right then. It reminded him of how hopeless and broken he'd sounded after his father had left. Then he dropped into his normal way of dealing with shit like this. He got mad. "And if I didn't who did? Nobody messes with you but me. I'll fucking kick the ass of whoever pushed you this far."

If ever Rachel had wondered if Puck had really and truly hated her looking into his eyes now she knew he never could have. Because right now he had murder and hatred in his eyes and he'd never looked at her like that.

"No. I….I just had a really bad day." She pulled her hands from his-warm, soft- scalp and twisted them in her lap. He covered them with his own.

Still on his knees, his chest pressed against her legs he wrapped his own hands around her tiny cute hands marred by the bandages that shackled them. He noticed how tiny she was this close to himself. Normally she had such a big personality and big voice that you didn't notice just how small she was. "Tell me about it." He ordered.

"It was nothing."

He pulled her hands put and presented the bandaged wrists with a raised eyebrow and a sarcastic look.

"I blew it all out of proportion."

"Tell. Me." There it was again. Not the pitying coaxing voice of her therapist or the heart broken tones of her fathers. The demanding hard voice of her bully; who wanted to know what had pushed her this far. Probably only because he felt guilty and he thought that punishing someone for this would make himself feel better; she'd like to feel upset about that but the truth was that Puck had been the highlight of that bad day. It made it hard to be mad at his likely selfish reasons for wanting to know.

"I had a nightmare the night before." She paused, remembering.

"What about?" Now there was a questioning tone in his voice. Although under it there was still an order.

"I dreamed that the Cheerios had tied me to the faucet in the shower stall in the girl's locker room and that they were going to let boys in to…" She bit her lip and stared at his shoulder she couldn't look at him not and say that. "Then Jacob was there and I could hear others behind him…wa-waiting their turn. I woke up right before he was about to touch me."

"Ben-Israel?" He'd been asking for a beating for a while now the way he messed with Rachel and that blog of his that Puck heard about occasionally. Rachel was his. What part of that was difficult to understand?

"Yeah."

"Go on. What then?"

"I was so bothered, so disgusted by it and I hopped right into the bathroom to wash it away. I had to take a bath instead of a shower because I couldn't touch the faucet to turn it on. I stayed in there until I was pruney washing off the dream. Because of that I missed the bus. And it was raining. But I didn't want to miss school so I walked."

"Why didn't you call someone to drive you?"

"I don't have any friends Puck." She winced as if admitting it made it worst.

Yeah he'd noticed that she didn't really have any friends but he saw her talking to people occasionally. Theater geeks mostly even Brittney that one spacey blonde Cheerio who he'd screwed last fall. Something about ballet was all he'd caught before he'd tossed the slushie.

"So you walked to school, in the rain. That sucks. Then what?"

"Jacob was the first person I saw and he started snapping pictures of me in my wet clothes. When I got to the bathroom I realize you could see my bra through my shirt."

"Sorry I missed that." He leered at her a bit and felt validated when the tiniest of smiles curled at the corners of her pretty mouth.

"I always bring a change of clothes. They were a little damp but not see through. I wrung the others out and hung them up in my locker." Some Cheerios came by and made fun of me like usual."

"Who?"

"I don't know their names. Except the few who took dance classes with me I try to make a point to ignore them. That almost seems to make them worst though."

"Yeah us bullies don't like being ignored." He chuckled. "I noticed you seemed kind of down that morning that's why I got grape to slushie you with."

"With grape. My favorite."

"I know." She looked confused. "You lick your lips when I toss grape on you. Whenever you're looking a little down or whatever I get a grape one to cheer you up."

"By tossing it on me."

He shrugged, "I get cherries when I hate what you're wearing cause I know it stains. Blueberry when you're being really annoying. Cherry's also the one you hate the most. You purse up your lips really tight to keep it from getting in. I try not to toss it in your face unless I'm really feeling mean that day."

"Wow. You've really got that thought out."

"Yeah." Did he just sound defensive?

"Do you put that much thought into all of your victims?"

"No." He seemed unwilling to admit that.

She raised both eyebrows at him in shock and thought about the implications of the fact that her bully might know her best out of her peers.

He grumbled to himself. He could practically see the wheels turning in her head. "What happened next?"

"Oh umm. My homework was all damp but still legible but my teachers wouldn't take it and wouldn't let me explain either they just said to do it again."

"Okay. They should be grateful you do homework. Legible or not I think they'd all die of shock if I turned in homework."

"Probably."

"And then."

"Well I got that disgusting meatloaf on me during lunch."

"How? You're vegan you don't go near that shit."

She looked at him as if to say 'how do you know that?' but it was pretty established by now that Puck was a lot more observant than most people gave him credit for.

"Some jocks dropped their trays on me." Her eyes jerked away from his again. Instead looking over his shoulders.

"Dropped their trays on you...yeah I can buy that but something else is there."

"Some of them might have, how do you say that? Cropped a feel?" Rachel tried to twist her hands again only to find that they were still trapped within Puck's rough hands that were slowly tightening into fists. Right before it started to hurt she started talking.

"It reminded me of my dream and I ran out to the girl's locker room. Some of it was in my hair and I had to shower." She paused and glanced up at him waiting for his prompt but found his eyes dark and hard and murderous. He didn't ask for names just as well because she wouldn't have been able to give them.

"In the locker room some Cheerios found me. It was so like my dream that I just froze. I…cowered against the wall. I couldn't even hear what they were saying. Then they slushied me. Cherry. I had never been hit with one while naked before. It was…so…cold. It looked like blood running down the drain. It stained my skin. I don't know how long I stayed in there. Finally I got up and rinsed off and got changed and it was time to leave. My clothes were still damp from that morning and still somewhat see through but I didn't have anything else to wear. My umbrella had been broken on the way to school that morning when the wind caught it and it was still raining outside. I was still so cold. I was cold and damp and alone and no one even noticed me. No one offered to help." She sounded so broken so close to crying.

"I noticed."

"You did?" She sounded surprised and that pissed him off. Yeah he noticed he always noticed her.

"Yeah right before I had to go to practice. You were standing by the doors looking at this little broken pink umbrella then you threw it down and ran outside."

"Yes. I ran all the way home. I don't even remember it. It's like a mile and it's all just a blur. Then I was in my kitchen and I just wanted it all to stop. My blood was warm. It seemed so weird. I was so cold but my blood was so warm. Then I started getting colder and colder. And then it's like a switch flipped and suddenly I realized what I was doing and I freaked out. I panicked and called 911. I wrapped my arms up in dish towels and thought about how I was never going to see New York. I was never going to be on Broadway. Then the paramedics came. It's all patchy after that. I lost a lot of blood. I had to have a transfusion. Then they bought me home."

"I see."

"So you see you're not to blame. Getting grape in my face was actually kind of the best part of that day."

He nodded slowly and stood. She looked up at him the tiniest bit nervous.

He pulled her up against him and hugged her tight. She trembled for a few seconds then slowly bought her arms up to hold him as well. Neither of them noticed her cracked door close slowly.

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"Well at least we finally know what all happened." Leroy said back stairs from where Hiram, Kim, and himself had been crouched outside Rachel's door after having been alerted by the crash of what they now knew was a boy falling through Rachel's window.

"I had no idea that school was that bad for her." Hiram commented hand tight around his coffee cup staring at nothing much as he had been doing since he'd first been called at the shop that his daughter was at the hospital.

Kim, Rachel's therapist, looked worriedly at the two men. Leroy was alternating between anger and despair. Like the boy upstairs, Puck, he simultaneously blamed himself and wanted to destroy whoever had done this. Hiram was much harder to read as an ex-commando flat effect had taken hold and he was blank and impossible to read.

"I think we need to talk to the boy, Puck…He's Connie Greenburg's grandson isn't he?" Kim asked.

"Yes." Hiram stated.

"She responds to him. With his help we can help her." Kim appealed to them.

"Whatever you need." Everyone but Hiram flinched and they all turned to see Puck standing in the doorway of the kitchen Rachel, pale and wan, clutched tight to his side. He walked in tugging Rachel along behind him. He lifted her up to sit on the bar and Leroy fetched a glass of water for his little girl.

"So what can we do?" Hiram asked staring at Rachel's white clad form as if she was going to disappear.

"Rachel." Kim called

Rachel lifted her head and turned to her therapist. Kim noted that her eyes seemed the slightest bit brighter and how her body leaned towards Puck's.

"Remember we talked about flight of thought?"

"I'm all alone, I have no friends, everyone picks on me, no one defends me, I'm all alone." Rachel intoned. Puck looked up at her his nostrils flared angry and he turned to glare at the red headed woman.

"I wish you wouldn't chant it like that dear. But yes and to break the cycle we need to introduce a new element like…"

"Me. You're not alone cause I'm here now. I'm your friend. No one is going to pick on you because I'm going to make a list of names whose asses I've got to kick until there isn't anyone to defend you against cause I'm here and you're not alone." He was nearly shouting by the end of it.

Kim raised her eyebrows and looked at the two dad's reaction to that. Surprisingly Leroy was nodding in approval and Hiram had a thoroughly grim smile on his face. Rachel looked at Puck startled and Kim was somewhat shocked to see signs of arousal there. Her lips parted, her eyes dilated, her posture changed ever so slightly to suggest she'd welcome Puck's attentions. "Yes." Kim smiled at them. "That'll work."

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Puck skipped school for the rest of the day instead hanging out with Rachel. After her story and the plan to break Rachel's flight thoughts or whatever the head doc had said they'd hung out watching Disney movies of all things. One of her dads was always in the room with them and the Kim woman hovered but Puck left Rachel's side only to go to the bathroom. He'd have stayed the night if he hadn't had to pick up his sister from school.

Meanwhile he planned out just how he was going to make the jocks and Cheerios stop. Jacob would be easy enough. A couple of beatings and he'd likely back off; likewise with the jocks. A warning then beatings. Puck had chosen the Casanova way of being a badass this year after all the experience he'd picked up with the cougars over the summer. Before that he'd been a mean bastard. Coach called him a psycho with good reason. He'd built a nice reputation and had been going to coast on it with Finn for the rest of high school. Then some little shits had to mess with Rachel. Puck ran through some fighting moves and had a go at the punching bag hanging from a tree in the backyard. He had been getting a little soft and out of practice. Something told him he'd be getting a lot of practice in the following weeks. Before that though he gave his mom a heads up.

"Hey mom you know that girl who attempted suicide you told me about?"

"Yes Noah." She replied distracted by the movie.

"Well she was a friend of mine. Turns out people have been giving her shit at school and I didn't even know." He growled it pissed him off that despite the way he watched Rachel she'd still been getting that much hell. Sex messed with your brain he spent so much time watching Cheerio skirts that those same devils had nearly destroyed his angel.

His mom turned to him, dread on her face.

"So I'm going to be getting in a lot more fights soon."

His mom's face was bleak.

"I'll try and keep them off campus."

She closed her eyes but nodded jerkily and then turned to the screen again. Puck nodded and went on upstairs. Mom knew that he was a lot like his father. Fighting and trouble was in his blood and it was useless to try and stop that. Puck's dad had never laid a hand on his family but he'd been in enough fights around town before he'd left that whenever there was a disturbance the cops went looking for him even if he hadn't been involved in it. Giving Mom a heads up meant she'd cover for him if anyone came looking for him. He called Rachel before he went to bed that night then slept tearing through letter jackets to get to the white clad dark haired angel at the other end of the football field.

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Puck knocked on the Berry's door the next morning holding two coffees. Hiram, the shorter dad answered without his shirt. Puck nodded to him and Hiram nodded back and let him in. Puck walked into the kitchen to see Rachel eating oatmeal. He sat one of the coffees down in front of her and sat down next to her to drink his own.

She blinked at the drink from the local coffee shop. The marks on the side denoted that it was her favorite drink. She looked at Puck somewhat confused and was about to comment which Puck just shook his head. She decided to just whisper her thanks before curling her legs up and sipping on the super sweet soy drink. She tilted her head and looked up at her tormentor. He looked angry as he drank his coffee. His brow was furrowed as if he was thinking hard about something and she wondered if they were close enough for her to stroke his head.

Leroy, and Hiram came in and sat down at the table. "You're gonna be late to school son."

Puck nodded and tilted his head back to drain the rest of the cup. He threw it away and turned to stand behind Rachel's chair. She tensed but didn't turn. He tangled his fingers in her curls and she relaxed slightly. "You got a yearbook Rachel?" He'd noticed yesterday that she flinched minutely when he called her Berry.

She tilted her head back to look at him exposing her long, smooth, tan throat. It drew his eyes and he almost missed her tiny nod. She was so quiet this morning. He wondered if she'd had another bad dream.

"I want you to get it out and we'll go over who did what when I get back." He'd originally wanted her to do it today while he was busy but he thought he'd better be here for it seeing how subdued she was today.

"Any way we can help?" Leroy asked.

"I don't suppose you have some low-grade explosives do you?" Puck asked with a chuckle.

Leroy grinned at him. "What do you need?"

Puck raised one eyebrow and Rachel giggled drawing the eyes of every man in the room. A tiny smile spread across her lips as she quoted, "There is no problem on Earth that can't be solved by the proper use of high explosives."

The men smiled.

Puck had finally checked out Jacob's blog that morning. What he'd seen had so disgusted him that he spent the rest of the morning breaking into Jacob's house and destroying his room and stealing all of his electronics and pictures, anything that had something to do with Rachel. There were even some slushie destroyed clothes that he had to have gotten out of the garbage that he kept near the bed. After he gathered it all up he went to the school and knocked Jacob out before tossing him in the back of the truck as well.

In a remote back road far enough that it was unlikely anyone would hear the explosion Jacob woke up bound and gagged to a metal folding chair. He started coughing when he realized that the smell of smoke had woken him up. He opened his eyes to the sight of one of his favorite and most revealing Rachel photos being burnt right under his nose before the photo was dropped into his lap. He squirmed at the heat on his crouch but it was wet and the rain quickly put out the fire but not before the picture was completely destroyed.

Despite the rain he was rather warm because he was sitting next to a large burn barrel in which before his eyes were being tossed his most precious possessions. Rachel's pictures flew before his eyes followed quickly by her stolen clothes. He began to cry. Next his laptop and camera were thrown in along with all his backups and his external hard drive and jump drives.

"The pictures make the flames change colors. I didn't know that." The voice finally made Jacob twist his head around to see who was destroying his things. He tried valiantly to hold his bladder when he saw his childhood bully standing over him. He started to loose the battle when Puck looked down at him with murderous hazel eyes. "Now Jacob I thought we went over this years ago. I thought you understood that when I said Rachel was mine I meant that you weren't allowed to so much as look at her let alone anything else. I thought you were smarter than to try and defy me. Looks like I was wrong." The bigger Jewish boy walked slowly to stand in front of the perverted ginger. "So very wrong. So tell me Jacob what punishment do you think you deserve for this."

The red head began to shake his head rapidly and lost the battle with his bladder as a cruel smirk twisted Puck's lips.

"No suggestions? I guess I'll just have to come up with something myself." Jacob howled against his gag as the first hard fist slammed into his soft side. The next one landed on his jaw as Puck used him as a personal punching bag for the next several minutes until Jacob was bleeding from his nose, mouth and various other abrasions. His glasses had been knocked from his face early on and he sobbed and choked unable to catch his breath but unable to stop crying from the pain that racked his torso.

Puck grabbed him by his hair and dragged him back to the truck. There he sat the smaller boy upright on the tailgate before gently placing his glasses back on his face. "Wouldn't want you to miss this next part." He turned and pulling a remote from his back pocket pressed a button that made of now slowly burning barrel explode. Flaming bits of electronics went flying. Any hope Jacob had of somehow salvaging his collection was destroyed with a big bang.

Puck chuckled and Jacob whimpered in fear.

"Now wasn't that pretty; almost as pretty as Rachel. Not that you'd know that because you're going to forget about her. You're never going to look at her or take pictures or talk about her on that blog of yours ever again. No, for you Rachel Berry no longer exists." Puck reached out and grabbed the other boy's chin and forced him to look into the sadistic eyes of his tormentor. "And if you don't understand or you forget my orders allow me to assure you that this can get much much worst. And don't think that telling anyone about me will help you either. I'll hunt you down to the ends of the Earth if I think you deserve my wrath. Do you understand me Jacob?"

Through his tears and gasping sobs Jacob heard and understood. He nodded with several short jerks and shuddered in terror. He whined and cried in pain as Puck rolled him further in the truck and closed the tailgate. A tarp was thrown over him and as the vibration of the big diesel racked pain along his trembling frame he lost consciousness.

When he woke up in a dumpster hours later cold, and wet with dried blood on his face he went home, cleaned up and hid from his parent's until he could come up with a reasonable excuse for his injuries. He called a friend and instructed him to take down everything on the blog that had Rachel in it and delete it. He might have felt tempted to save some pics from the site if he hadn't found a red headed troll doll hanging from its neck in the center of his trashed room. The troll's body had been hacked at many times with a heavy clever from the looks of it. Its message was clear. Puck could be much more cruel.

Puck returned to Rachel's after washing the blood from his hands and changing clothes. He checked in with his mom on his whereabouts and even stopped into the school for football practice before heading to the grocery store. He brought her some soy chocolate ice cream and resumed his place by her side for the rest of the day.

As she ate the ice cream they went over who had done what from the yearbook. Her therapist thought it was cruel to force Rachel to explain what each and every person at the school had done to her but Puck wouldn't take no for an answer. After an hour both him and her dads were almost more upset than she was. Rachel was sitting in her Daddy's lap being rocked slowly as Puck and Hiram hashed out plans and punishments. Occasionally Rachel made a suggestion as well drawing a smile from the men at her participation.

Her therapist wasn't sure she agreed with what the men were doing and after stating such removed herself from the room. She wasn't going to tell or stop them either.

Rachel was to return to the school the week following. Her dads didn't want her to but there were no alternatives, besides Puck was adamant that he could make the school safe for her.

Rachel herself also wanted to return. She assured them repeatedly that she was fine and besides after getting Mr. Ryerson fired she hoped that Mr. Figgins would hire someone competent to head up the Glee Club.

When Puck was to leave that night he pulled Rachel into his embrace and slowly gently kissed her cheek before squeezing her hands. Then he left. He had many things to do that night.

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Over the next several days Puck put his various skills to use going so far as to seduce a few moms to gain access to their children's rooms. As he'd promised his mom many of the actual fights took place off campus it such a way that nothing could be pinned on him. It helped that with the Berry's help and the fact that he went to every class he kept a good solid alibi.

Tommy Ferguson had been attacked by a maniac with a baseball bat and came away with a broken arm? Puck was helping his sister with her homework.

Santana Lopez and Quinn Fabray's lockers, cars, and purses had been broken into and vandalized? Puck was in math class.

Roger Collins, the English teacher, had been pushed down the stairs resulting in a broken leg? Puck was talking to Mr. Schuster about taking French instead of Spanish.

Over the next several days the school was a place of some terror. As much as many of the students and teachers eyed Puck warily although he'd somehow been occupied innocently when every incident had taken place. That didn't stop them from shying away from the way he clearly enjoyed each misfortune.

Rumor was that no matter what anyone said Puck was responsible, a crazed psycho that seemed to be targeting the other popular kids for some reason. No one was actually brave enough to tell him that to his face but he heard and internally patted himself on the back for a job well done. When he walked in the school with Rachel next week no one was going to say one word although it'd inevitably gotten around school about her suicide attempt. The black gazes Puck gave anyone who dared breathe a word of it however kept it to whispers only. No one seemed to be piecing together what all the victims had in common yet.

It was near the end of the week and Puck was missing. The school gave a collective sigh of relief at the missing hellion. In the front office it was never even noticed that two student files were missing until they were already returned with changed paperwork.

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Monday morning when the white work truck with Puck's Pool Cleaning Service stenciled on the side rolled into the parking everyone outside froze. They watched the big bully climb out of the truck before removing a small pink book bag from the back and opening the passenger side door. As he lifted Rachel Berry down from the high seat some of the more perceptive students began to frantically piece together the last week or so.

Jacob stared for only a moment before he quickly hurried inside to be in his classroom and far out of sight before Puck turned around. His bruises had yet to fade and his ribs still hurt as he moved. He'd transferred out of all of Rachel's classes and now used his knowledge of her schedule to avoid the hell out of her and by extension Puck.

Some of the more popular kids stared and one Cheerio in particular sneered as Rachel put her hand in the crook of Puck's arm. It was noted how Rachel's arms were covered by long arm warmers, light blue with yellow edging. They had been a gift from Puck just last night. For the other students it just confirmed what had already been rumored.

Puck's dark stare might as well had been a laser with how the other kids turned and dunked away from it whenever he saw them looking at Rachel. Puck escorted her to each and every class that day. She sat on the bleachers during football practice and he drove her to and from school everyday. It was on Wednesday that Santana finally caught Puck alone. He stood outside the Girl's bathroom and she knew the midget must be inside.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? You're giving up all this for Man-hands? What'd she do suck your dick while she was bleeding out? Fucking Stubbles couldn't even kill herself right what makes you think…?" Her scream was inruptly cut off when puck grabbed her ponytail and pressed her face against the lockers. Then she got to hear him hot and close to her ear. The last time he'd been this close he'd been whispering about how hot and tight her snatch was but now his tone was rough and evil.

"Rachel is mine." He tightened his grip and her ponytail and she whimpered as she felt several hairs come loose. "You call her names or harass her again and you won't like the steps I will take to stop you Satan. What ever we were is over. Walk away and never talk to me or Rachel again. And you can spread that around to all your little Cheeri-hos. Fuck with Rachel and you get fucked over by me." He pulled her away from the wall and pushed her on down the hall. She shot a fearful look behind her but quickly scurried out of sight only thankful that she'd waited until after school when no one was there to witness her shame.

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"Noah!"

Puck stopped when Rachel did and watched her bounce happily in front of the bulletin board. He raised an eyebrow and wondered what had her so excited.

"Finally the Glee Club is starting again. Look the sign up sheet is up." Rachel was already digging though his book bag to pull out her pen and sticker sheet. After a week of two different book bags they'd consolidated into his one larger bag, sharing books and supplies now that they shared every class.

He looked over the sheet and wondered if he'd gotten the point across enough that Rachel could join the club alone. Mr. Schuster was heading it up looked like. He was an okay teacher and probably wouldn't let Rachel be pushed around too much. He watched how her face lit up and her wide smile and reflected how unusual that was. Even with all his protection Rachel still was much more subdued than she was before. Was he willing to let her go it alone? Could he chance her sadness? He wasn't afraid Rachel would ever try to kill herself again but that didn't mean he was going to let her be sad. If years of watching her hadn't warned him then actually being her friend should have made it perfectly obvious. He was truly, completely, madly, totally, deeply, thoroughly, irreversibly in love with her and it only got stronger every day he devoted himself to making her happy. So when she turned and bit her lip and looked up at him beseechingly he already knew what his answer to her question was.

"Will you join with me Noah?" She gave him big puppy eyes as if there was any chance he was going to say no. She might even think it was necessary. He wasn't sure she was aware of her hold on him just yet.

"Well I don't know. It's not exactly my thing." Of course if he could tease another smile out of her it might be okay to exploit that weakness. He was good at exploiting weaknesses.

"Oh." She looked down at her shoes.

"I guess I could do it. For a kiss."

She blushed. He stepped closer to her and tilted his head down. She bounced up on her toes to quickly peck his cheek.

"Ah now that wasn't a kiss." He crooned at her, his voice rough and deep.

She's almost trembling as she slides her hands up his chest to his shoulders. She balances on her tip toes and gently so gently he almost couldn't feel it at first she kissed him. He let her hold it there for a second before tilting his head and kissing her just a little deeper before pulling away.

Her eyes are closed and she's breathing a little deeper. He holds her against him as he steals her pen and under Rachel Berry * he prints PUCK. When he looks down he sees that she's opened her eyes and grins at his name before bounces up to kiss his jaw before they walk off down the hallway her babbling happily about audition pieces.

Hours later Will Schuster sighs at only six names on his list until he gets to the bottom and ice water runs through his veins.

END

%^%^%^%&^%&^%*%*&^%&*^%*%*%&

A thought I had months ago but finally finished today. It started with Rachel sitting on the bed with bandaged hands while Puck looked inside her window and flashed to her begging him to join Glee with her with the sense of him being this badass protector of her. Fleshing out the middle took time however. I was delighted at how particularly vicious Puck is in this. It is highly, highly unlikely there will be anymore of this.


End file.
